This was not at Comerica Park, where the Tigers were playing Seattle. This was about a mile away, at Nemo’ Bar & Grill on Michigan Avenue, near the site of the now-demolished Tiger Stadium.

About 100 self-selected fans were gathered not only to watch that night’s game on big TVs with the rest of the customers but also to celebrate what would have been the 60th birthday of Mark (The Bird) Fidrych, the legendary Tigers pitcher (born Aug. 14, 1954.)

It was hard to tell what made Millikin more mad: Nathan’s inconsistency that has earned the nickname “Sloppy Joe” among some fans or Nathan’s rude hand gestures toward home-field customers who booed him last week.

When Nathan eventually gave up a run but got the save in a 4-2 victory over the Mariners, Millikin turned his seat back around and said “Even a blind tiger finds a hunk of meat every now and then.”

As for the championship prospects of this year’s team, Millikin said “I don’t think they’re going to make it.”

But he couldn’t stay glum for long. Near him, a woman wore a yellow shirt covered with yellow feathers and danced with everyone. On her head was a yellow hat with an orange, plastic beak.

Two guys wore full Tigers uniforms, one with “FIDRYCH 20” on the back, the other with “KIMM 46.” (Bruce Kimm was The Bird’s personal catcher in 1976 when, as rookie of the year, Fidrych went 19-9 with a 2.34 earned run average). The Fidrych impersonator wore a wig to duplicate The Bird’s long curls.

That summer, Fidrych became a national sensation for his frantic antics around the mound during two-hour games and for talking to the ball in the 10-second breaks between his pitches.

He died in 2009 in a mechanical accident at his Northborough, Massachusetts home.

The Fidrych celebrations started four years ago when a truck driver from Flint spontaneously brought a cake to the old stadium site where it was enjoyed on the mound by the volunteer Navin Field Grounds Crew, which keeps the diamond and outfield in playing shape at the now-vacant corner of Michigan and Trumbull.

It got bigger this year with ceremonies on the old field at sunset Saturday after a Nemo’s screening of a video tape of The Bird beating the Yankees on ABC’s Monday Night Baseball, his smash debut on the national stage.

Its washed-out and now poignant images from 38 years ago flickered on a screen right next to a clear, sharp picture of the 2014 game in progress.

After the ceremonies on the ball field, the gang returned to Nemo’s to sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” and “Happy Birthday” before cutting a decorated birthday cake. For favorite Fidrych charities, they auctioned off a large blowup of a black-and-white photo of The Bird taking a curtain call, his habit that year.

Two guys from Lansing passed out free Fidrych baseball cards they made themselves. People wore replica Fidrych jerseys. Most were home “D” shirts but a couple were gray and of the style they wore on the road then.

One of Saturday’s celebrants had traveled to Massachusetts for The Bird’s funeral. He was Dave Mesrey, the unofficial organizer of this unofficial event they call the “Bird Bash.”

“We’re kind of winging it still, I’ve been running around like a chicken with my head cut off,” Mesrey said. “Mark Fidrych meant so much to me as a child.”

Mesrey was seven years old in the Year of the Bird. He got to know Fidrych a little during The Bird’s promotional returns to Detroit after his short career.

“I always had the idea I would make a pilgrimage to Northborough,” Mesrey said of Fidrych’s home town. But he didn’t do it, Mesrey said, until Fidrych died.

“Mark Fidrych was a guy who really appreciated what he had,” Mesrey said. “He had his moment in the sun. He was king for a day. He knew he was appreciated and loved.”

The event was attended by several former Tigers including Dave Rozema, Fernando Arroyo, Chuck Scrivener, John Knox and Ike Blessitt.

Some of the revelers were too young to have been born when Fidrych treated Detroit to his meteoric summer. And not all the conversation was nostalgic about the past.

Jason Roche, a baseball documentarian, said “I try to have a positive” outlook about the current team.

“I’m not one of those people who call talk radio to criticize and complain,” he said.

Christine Hathaway said she “can’t figure out” the 2014 team that has paid so much money for so much talent but seems to be faltering.

“Phil Coke is my Tiger,” she said of the left-handed reliever. “I met him a few years ago at a fund-raiser and he was very generous and cooperative. I told him ‘If Brandon Inge wasn’t my Tiger, you’d be.’ So now he is. I had to keep my promise. Of course, he makes you crazy, too.”

Millikin, the guy who turned his back on Nathan, said Miguel Cabrera is “underappreciated” by Detroit fans. “Miguel is the greatest Tiger of our lifetime,” Millikin said. “He is our Al Kaline.”

Like many of the Bird Bash crowd, Millikin said he goes to some games at Comerica but not as many as he used to when he sat in the Tiger Stadium bleachers.

“Comerica has no smell, no charm, no character,” he said. “Tiger Stadium, that field has magical powers. I hate Comerica with all my soul.”

Mesrey, more soulful than some, recalled exchanging a little bag of Tiger Stadium dirt in Northborough with a childhood friend of Fidrych who gave Mesrey a little bag of dirt from the mound Fidrych used as a child.

“He was one of a kind,” Mesrey said of The Bird. “His spirit is still alive.”

Joe Lapointe is a sports columnist for MLive.com. He is a 20-year veteran of the New York Times sports department, 11-year veteran of the Detroit Free Press, and a Detroit native.